Genomics is already saving lives and improving health outcomes and disease management for patients touched by cancer, heart disease, epilepsy, and other debilitating diseases, such as thalassaemia.
As genomics research moves from the bench to the bedside, clinical applications of genomics will affect even more areas of medicine, improving disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.
Today, it is not only possible to affordably sequence the entirety of the human genome within a few days, but it is also possible to edit the genome to ‘fix’ genetic errors that cause debilitating human diseases, such as β-thalassaemia and sickle cell disease.
In the context of the recent ‘Cell and Gene Therapy Summit 2023’, organised by The Economist on April 24-25, the Economist Intelligence Unit spoke with Dr Androulla Eleftheriou, Executive Director of the Thalassaemia International Federation – TIF, on the future of thalassaemia diagnosis and treatment.
